Poetry in British Sign Language and English

What a week.

Where to start? The obvious, I suppose, is the gangs of disaffected youths running around smashing the place up. It would be pithy and probably very uninformed of me to observe that when super-rich people get away with apparently anything and then, in order to pay for these people’s cock-ups, the government slashes funding to vital services and charities and police, there may be some ill-feeling. Even so, burning things and smashing things up indiscriminately achieves little (apart from a free 42″ TV, a natty new pair of trainers, and ooh, maybe 40 iPhones and wall-to-wall media coverage) and does way more harm than good. If they’d just gone for ATOS centres and JobCentres instead of blameless people… For the benefit of the tape, I am not in any way recommending criminal behaviour with that remark.

For my part, I wonder how the elderly, disabled and deaf are doing – elderly and disabled people who rely on carers not being afraid to come out, who rely on others to bring shopping / do basic tasks, and deaf people who can’t hear the windows breaking or roar of fire engines coming up the street. All I know is, I’m glad I no longer live anywhere near a city centre, I’ve had good restful nights of sleep out here in the sticks, far removed from any trouble, and safe in the knowledge that my father owns an air pistol and I know where it is. However, many others, disabled or otherwise, aren’t so lucky.

I hope all this madness settles down soon, because for all that it gets a lot of attention and Cameron must surely have to rethink his Big Society / cutting police / cutting community projects / all his stupid ideas, the people who will suffer most in all of this will be those who are the most vulnerable. That’s the way it usually goes, hence “vulnerable”.

In other news, HSBC have responded formally to my complaint. £15. They’ve credited my account with £15. That’s how much all that stress and aggravation was worth to them. £15. And they don’t know it yet, but they actually gave me even more ammunition in the letter. £15. £15. Fifteen bloody pounds. Why not just smack me in the face with a gauntlet and throw it on the floor? Senior Service Quality Team at HSBC, you’ll be hearing from me again soon. £15! Someone’s going to regret that. £15. £15…

Post navigation

3 thoughts on “What a week.”

Whilst its great that you have received some compensation have HSBC actually responded in any way to the issues in the letter? Detailed how they will be improving services? Agreed to any Deaf Awareness training? … I doubt it!

Funnily enough, no. There will be no attempt to improve services and whilst the operator I spoke to and her line manager will be given ‘refresher training’, there will be no attempt to improve deaf awareness on a wider scale. Yes, I plan to address this…

They’ve made a big mistake trying to fob you off Donna; picked a wrong-un there. Must thought ‘Oh she’s deaf, poor soul, she’ll be glad of £15, we won’t hear any more from her’…. I look forward to you wiping the floor with them!